Beneficial Effects of Vitamins and Minerals To Your Blood
Vitamins, minerals and other nutrients are essential to the health and functioning of the body and are delivered throughout the body by the blood. There are several vitamins and minerals that directly affect the blood and its ability to perform its important tasks within the body. For the blood to be able to perform its duties properly and efficiently as well as the body and mind in general it is necessary to meet the standard recommended daily intake levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients each and every day.
Blood receives its color from the red blood cells which perform one of the most important tasks that the blood does for the body. Red blood cells are responsible for the transportation of oxygen throughout the body as well as for the removal of waste products. Because the average red blood cell lives for about 120 days the body needs to continuously produce a new supply of red blood cells. There are several vitamins and minerals that are essential to the creation of these cells and the ability of these cells to perform their important work in the body.
The vitamins that make up the powerful and very important Vitamin B complex are a major factor in the production of red blood cells in the body. Vitamin B6 also called pyridoxine is a necessary part of the metabolism of red blood cells and is also required to make hemoglobin which is how the red blood cell transports oxygen. Men between the ages of 19 and 50 need 1.3mg daily of Vitamin B6 as do women of the same age group. However, for women during periods of pregnancy the recommended amount is 1.9mg per day and 2.0mg while breastfeeding. Men older than 50 should have a daily Vitamin B6 intake of 1.7mg and women in that age group should take 1.5mg daily. The children’s needs however, depends on their age and size, dosages actually range from between .6mg to 1.3mg of Vitamin B6 per day.
Other B complex vitamins that have an important role in the production of red blood cells include Vitamin B2 also known as riboflavin, Vitamin B9 also called as folate in its natural form and folic acid in its pharmaceutical form and Vitamin B12 which is also called cobalamin due to its cobalt content.
Iron is one of the minerals that is essential to the quality, quantity, good health and function of the blood. One of the most important tasks iron serves in the blood is in the production of hemoglobin. Approximately 60% of the iron in the body is found in its hemoglobin.
The mineral copper is also involved in the production of red blood cells and through its enhancement of iron absorption by the body so too is Vitamin C. Vitamin E also helps in red blood cell production. These and the numerous other nutrients involved in making the steady supply of red blood cells essential to the body’s good health and well being demonstrate clearly the importance of the every day consumption of the standard recommended daily intake levels of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.
Nutritional supplements can offer a reliable and safe means of making sure that your body has all the nutrients necessary each day to ensure that your blood remains healthy and strong. The quality of your blood will influence the quality of your life. A lot of people are actually suffering from iron deficiency anemia nowadays which can be caused by a lot of contributing factors such as lack of sleep, excessive stress and not having enough liver in take. All of these should be avoided so as to ensure that the anemia will not go on to becoming leukemia or any other irreversible damage to the blood.
Note: This article may be freely reproduced as long as the AUTHOR’S resource box at the bottom of this article is included and and all links must be Active/Linkable with no syntax changes.
Charlene J. Nuble 2005. For up to date links and information about Vitamins, please go to: vitamins.besthealthlink.net/ vitamins.besthealthlink.net/ or for updated links and information on all health related topics, go to: besthealthlink.net/ besthealthlink.net/
Do I Have Crohn’s Disease?
Abdominal pain with diarrhea and weight loss for no apparent reason can be an early indication of Crohn’s disease.
The symptoms of this disease can vary in intensity from mild to severe to even life altering. Your health can suffer greatly if you are experiencing intestinal disorder. Some sufferers find themselves giving up some of their basic daily activities just in case of an episode of Crohn’s disease eruption.
Crohn’s disease is an inflammation or ulceration of the digestive tract and is most often seen in the lowest portion of the small intestine known as the ileum. This disease can also be seen in the large intestine or colon.
Symptoms of Crohn’s disease include abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, poor appetite, fever, night sweats, rectal pain and rectal bleeding. These symptoms can vary in severity and can show themselves all together or a few at a time. Regardless any of these symptoms can make you feel horribly and can invade your plans for the day.
There are several different types of Crohn’s disease which include colitis, enteritis, terminal iletis, entero-colitis and ileo-colitis.
The two most common types of Crohn’s disease are Crohn’s terminal ileitis and Crohn’s ileo-colitis.
Crohn’s terminal ileitis is an inflammation that invades, as its names suggests, only the very end of the small intestines. Most commonly with terminal ileitis, symptoms experienced are often seen as abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Crohn’s ileo-colitis is one of the other most common types of Crohn’s disease seen today. With ileo-colitis, the colon and small intestine become horribly inflamed and show up as abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea.
If you see these symptoms then it is important to see your healthcare provider to determine if you have a definitive diagnosis of Crohn’s disease. To determine if you have Crohn’s disease, your healthcare provider will take a complete medical history and perform a physical exam. Your physician may also order imaging test such as a barium x-ray to look at the intestine and the colon. It is also rather common for physicians to order a colonoscopy to determine a definitive diagnosis of the disease. This allows your physician to look directly into the colon to see exactly what is going on.
Unfortunately at this time, this cannot be cured. However, there are many medications on today’s market that can help manage the disease. Medications can reduce the inflammation and infection often seen in conjunction with the worsening symptoms of Crohn’s disease.
Remember, if you are suffering from health issues involving your intestinal function, it is important to seek medical care so that you can receive the proper treatment. Crohn’s disease is a serious health issue and one that deserves your attention.
For more information on the-health-hub.com healthy living, be sure to visit the-health-hub.com where you’ll find information on health topics such as the-health-hub.com Crohn’s Disease, back pain, fitness, diet & nutrition & more.
Wonders of Bay ( External: Dandruff, sprains, atomic ulcers) – from a South African Perspective
Bay, sweet
Laurus nobilis
Lauraceae family
Language and mythology
Laurus is Latin for ‘bay tree’; nobilis means ‘renowned.’ In early Greece and Rome, bay was associated with glory, honor, and reward. Bay is also commonly called laurel. Those victorious in battle and sports were crowned with a laurel wreath. Bay also had a legendary role in the love affair of Apollo and Daphne and was associated with romance.
Description: This large, attractive tree is thickly covered with glossy, narrow dark-green leaves about 2 to 4 inches long and 1 inch wide. The thick, leathery leaves have wavy, somewhat variable margins. The greenish yellow flowers are without petals and not very ornamental. Pruning out the lower limbs and rounding the top creates an elegant appearance. The bark is shiny grey, and the fruit is a dark purple to black one-seeded berry about 1/2 inch long.
Plant type and hardiness: Evergreen tree; hardiness zone 8. Plant type and Height and width Height averages up to 10 feet (wild plants may reach 23 feet); width varies. Light and soil Full sun to light shade; moderately rich, well drained soil with a pH of 6.2.
Pests and disease: Susceptible to white wax scale, which makes the leaves sooty and unattractive and retards leaf growth.
Cultivation: Bay trees make excellent tub specimens, especially if grown with the lower branches pruned off and the top rounded. Seeds are difficult to propagate, but cuttings can be successful when taken in the spring after the leaves have hardened. Keep cuttings watered at all times and plant in containers when rooted. Bay trees are slow growing, but after one year in pots they can be transplanted into the garden or a larger container.
Companion planting: Growing bay near other plants is not a problem unless the tree gets too large and the roots take nourishment from nearby soil.
Propagation method: Difficult to propagate from seeds or cuttings.
Bloom time and color: March to May; greenish yellow.
Harvesting: Bay leaves can be harvested and dried throughout the year. Early in the day, cut or pick individual older leaves as needed. To keep leaves from curling when drying, place them on boards with books on top. The leaves should be dry in about two weeks. Store in tightly sealed containers.
Herbal uses Cosmetic, culinary, decorative, and medicinal: The fragrant oil is added to bath water to sooth the skin. Culinary use is mainly in soups, stews, and tomato sauces. Bay leaf also flavors shellfish boils, pickling brines, game meats, and herbal teas. Remember to remove bay leaf before serving. The tree itself is decorative when pruned into formal shapes. The branches can be used in fresh or dry herbal wreaths and to add fragrance to potpourris. Bay leaf is said to have some medicinal qualities. Internally for indigestion, poor appetite, colic, and flatulence. Externally Bay can be used to control dandruff, rheumatism, sprains, bruises, atomic ulcers, and scabies.
Garden notes: Bay can be trained as a topiary tree.
turtleherbestate.co.za turtleherbestate.co.za where you will find Global solutions and ideas.
Turtle Herb Estate Holdings consists of 3 forward thinking entrepreneurs with expertise in marketing & DTP advertising, farming culinary and medicinal herbs, web design and online marketing, horse breeding (sport horses),animal health products, import and export, engineering and industrial design (water solutions), arts and crafts. With a combined wealth of 80 years experience in various lines of business, we embrace a holistic approach to entrepreneurship.
Diet
What is a diet? Does a diet really help you lose weight? Are they healthy? Why would anyone want to go on one?
These are questions that almost everybody is asking these days.
First of all, despite my normal advice against “diets”, I do have to admit that in some circumstances, for some people, they can help a person’s weight loss program. Let me explain a couple of things, however.
People today get confused when they hear the word “diet”. They usually think that it always applies to some special plan of eating which is intended to help people lose weight. This isn’t always so, and there was a time that the word was simply used to indicate a list of what a person ate. Scholars would, and still do, talk about the “diet” of a tribe, nation, or cultural group. Doctors would prepare a list of foods intended to accomplish some goal other than weight loss, and the word would be applied to that list of foods. Heck, I was placed on one as a small child in order to determine what food might be causing an allergy I had at the time.
Today the word has come to mean a special list of foods you can or cannot eat if you wish to lose weight. Many of these have achieved almost mystical status and many have their own followings. Just witness how far the Atkins and South Beach Diets have extended themselves in our society.
Before Dr. Atkins came along and South Beach was discovered, I am sure you remember such exciting diets as those centered around specific foods which practically guaranteed weight loss success. You could eat grapefruit, cabbage soup, or you could enjoy the promised effects of the negative calorie diet. Most have these have faded away for three basic reasons:
1. People got tired of eating the same thing meal after meal.
2. They were unrealistic in their expectations. How could you get cabbage soup when on vacation, or at a business luncheon.
3. Most of the time, they simply didn’t work.
While “going on a diet” for a short period may produce a small loss for some people, dieting is simply not the answer to a lifelong weight loss problem. If you are just a few pounds overweight and want to drop a few dress sizes by the wedding in two weeks, a diet just might do the trick, and, for that short time, you will probably be able to stick with it as long as you keep your goal in sight.
The downside of a diet is threefold:
* The effects are not permanent or life changing
* It does not contribute to health and vitality
* It may actually contribute to weight gain
I have covered these subjects in more depth in other articles I have written, and, because of limited space, I will just provide a quick overview of these topics.
Most people will not stay on a diet for a myriad of reasons, and it normally cannot be adapted to a new style of eating – a lifestyle change. Admittedly, some people have hereditary or genetic situations that they cannot overcome, but which cause them to become overweight. However, for anyone, at least a portion of what made someone overweight is a part of their life choices, and it is these choices which must be changed in order for permanent weight loss to occur.
Limiting nutritional intake or restricting access to a wide selection of nutritional options, such as in the grapefruit or cabbage soup diet, also limits the individual’s access to nutrients necessary to normal health. Eating some foods, or types of foods, in excess may contribute to other health problems in some people.
Our bodies have been designed to operate and react in certain ways, and this includes how they react and function when changes occur in our diet. One of the effects of a failed attempt is that the body may actually put back on more weight than it originally had to contend with, and may even continue to gain over a prolonged period of time following coming off the program.
True, permanent weight loss for health and fitness hinges on three central points:
* Regular physical activity
* Periods of rest
* A sensible diet
Diet if you must, but realize that for your health and for permanent weight loss, you must do more. One last point. If you do choose to go on a diet, please take a daily multivitamin to help replace the nutrients you are missing.
Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area writer. A graduate of the University Of West Florida (1973) with a BA in accounting, he is a member of Mensa and has held several managerial positions. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, he became interested in internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has blogs on the subjects of nodiet4me.blogspot.com weight loss and health, hybridcarsalternativefuelsandmore.blogspot.com/ hybrid cars and alternative fuels, and donovanbaldwin.blogspot.com internet marketing and related business topics.